Interactive Sorting Within Reporting Services

About the Series …

This
article is a member of the series MSSQL Server Reporting Services.
The series is designed to introduce MSSQL Server Reporting Services ("Reporting
Services"), with the objective of presenting an overview of its features, together
with tips and techniques for real-world use. For more information on the
series, please see my initial Database
Journal
article, A New
Paradigm for Enterprise Reporting
.

As I
have stated since the charter article of the series, published about the time Reporting
Services
was first publicly released, my conviction is that Reporting
Services
will commoditize business intelligence, particularly in its role
as a presentation component within an integrated Microsoft BI solution.
Having been impressed from my first exposure to this exciting application, when
it was in early beta, my certainty in its destiny grows stronger by the day, as
I convert formerly dominant enterprise business intelligence systems, such as Cognos,
Business Objects, MicroStrategy, Crystal, and others, to the Reporting Services
architecture. I receive constant requests to conduct strategy sessions about
these conversions with large organizations in a diverse range of industries –
the interest grows daily as awareness of the solution becomes pervasive. Indeed,
the five- to six-plus figures that many can shave from their annual IT budgets
represent a compelling sweetener to examining this incredible toolset.

Note: To follow along with the steps we
undertake, the following components, samples and tools are recommended, and
should be installed / accessible, according to the respective documentation
that accompanies MSSQL Server 2005:

Server Requirements

  • Microsoft SQL
    Server 2005 Reporting Services

  • Microsoft SQL
    Server 2005 Database Services

  • The
    AdventureWorks sample databases

  • Microsoft SQL
    Server 2005 Analysis Services

  • The AdventureWorks
    OLAP cube

Client Requirements

  • Microsoft
    Internet Explorer 6.0 with scripting enabled

  • Business
    Intelligence Development Studio (optional)

Sample Files

We will be using one of the AdventureWorks sample
reports in the practice section, to save time and focus for the subject matter
of the article. The AdventureWorks sample reports are a set of
prefabricated report definition files that use the AdventureWorks
databases (both relational and Analysis Services) as data sources. The
sample reports are highly useful to many new report authors and other
practitioners, for whom they serve as a tool to assist in learning the
capabilities of Reporting Services, as well as templates for designing
new reports. For this reason, we typically make a copy of any report(s) we
modify within our lessons.

The samples are not
automatically installed.
Before we
can install the Reporting Services samples, we must have already copied
the sample installation program to the PC with which we are working, in
accordance with the instructions found in the SQL Server 2005 Books
Online
and elsewhere. We then run the sample installation program
to extract and copy the reports (and other) samples to the computer. The sample
installation program also installs the AdventureWorks databases.

The samples come packaged within a Report Server
project file, which we will open and use in many lessons, rather than creating
a new project file. Please make sure that the samples and the project file are
installed before beginning the practice section of this article, to provide an
environment in which to complete the exercises effectively.

Note: Current Service Pack updates are assumed for the operating system, along
with the applications and components listed above and the related Books
Online
and Samples. Images are from a Windows 2003
Server
environment, but the steps performed in the articles, together with
the views that result, will be quite similar within any environment that
supports MSSQL Server 2005 and its component applications.

About the BlackBelt Articles …

As I
have stated in earlier BlackBelt articles, one of the greatest
challenges in writing tutorial / procedural articles is creating each article
to be a freestanding document that is complete unto itself. This is important,
because it means that readers can complete the lesson without reference to
previous articles or access to objects that may have been created elsewhere.
When our objective is the coverage of a specific technique surrounding one or
more components of a report, a given administrative function surrounding all
reports, and other scenarios where the focus of the session is not the creation
of reports
, per se, challenges can arise because a report or reports often
has to be in place before we can begin to cover the material with which the
article concerns itself.

The BlackBelt
articles represent an attempt to minimize the setup required in simply getting
to a point within an article where we can actually perform hands-on practice
with the component(s) under consideration. We will attempt to use existing
report samples or other "prefabricated" objects that either come
along as part of the installation of the applications involved, or that are
readily accessible to virtually any organization that has installed the
application. While we will often have to make modifications to the sample
involved (we will actually create a copy, to allow the original sample to
remain intact), to refine it to provide the backdrop we need to proceed with
the object or procedure upon which we wish to concentrate, we will still save a
great deal of time and distraction in getting to our objective. In some cases,
we will still have to start from scratch with preparation, but my intention
with the BlackBelt articles will be to avoid this, if at all
possible.

For
more information about the BlackBelt
articles, see the
section entitled "About the BlackBelt Articles" in BlackBelt
Components: Manage Nulls in OLAP Reports
.

Overview

A common request within
the implementation of enterprise reporting systems is to endow the reports of
our users with interactive features. While we have spent a great deal of time
upon parameterization in general (even discussing parameterized sorting in Black
Belt Components: Ad Hoc Sorting with Parameters
), one feature of Reporting
Services 2005
that I expect to be quite popular is the new capability to
provide interactive sorting via column heading properties. To add to
the convenience that we find within the reporting component of what has become
known as the "BI Release" of MSSQL Server, we enjoy the option of
specifying sorting for multiple columns within the matrix, table or list within
which we are working. We can even extend the interactive sorting
features to grouped or nested data within our reports.

As we
shall discover in this article, what we have had to accomplish with conditional
formatting in MSSQL Server 2000, as well as within many other enterprise
reporting applications over the years, such as Cognos Impromptu and PowerPlay,
Crystal Reports, and a host of others, we can now address with the quick
and easy setting of properties in our reports as part of their design. In this session, we will:

  • Create a clone
    of an existing sample relational report, with which to perform our practice
    exercise;

  • Make structural
    changes to the clone report, based upon a sample SQL Server database, to meet
    the business requirements of a hypothetical group of information consumers for interactive
    sorting
    ;

  • Preview the
    report to ascertain the effectiveness of our solution;

  • Discuss the
    results obtained with the development techniques that we exploit.
William Pearson
William Pearson
Bill has been working with computers since before becoming a "big eight" CPA, after which he carried his growing information systems knowledge into management accounting, internal auditing, and various capacities of controllership. Bill entered the world of databases and financial systems when he became a consultant for CODA-Financials, a U.K. - based software company that hired only CPA's as application consultants to implement and maintain its integrated financial database - one of the most conceptually powerful, even in his current assessment, to have emerged. At CODA Bill deployed financial databases and business intelligence systems for many global clients. Working with SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and Informix, and focusing on MSSQL Server, Bill created Island Technologies Inc. in 1997, and has developed a large and diverse customer base over the years since. Bill's background as a CPA, Internal Auditor and Management Accountant enable him to provide value to clients as a liaison between Accounting / Finance and Information Services. Moreover, as a Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) - a Certified Public Accountant recognized for his or her unique ability to provide business insight by leveraging knowledge of information relationships and supporting technologies - Bill offers his clients the CPA's perspective and ability to understand the complicated business implications and risks associated with technology. From this perspective, he helps them to effectively manage information while ensuring the data's reliability, security, accessibility and relevance. Bill has implemented enterprise business intelligence systems over the years for many Fortune 500 companies, focusing his practice (since the advent of MSSQL Server 2000) upon the integrated Microsoft business intelligence solution. He leverages his years of experience with other enterprise OLAP and reporting applications (Cognos, Business Objects, Crystal, and others) in regular conversions of these once-dominant applications to the Microsoft BI stack. Bill believes it is easier to teach technical skills to people with non-technical training than vice-versa, and he constantly seeks ways to graft new technology into the Accounting and Finance arenas. Bill was awarded Microsoft SQL Server MVP in 2009. Hobbies include advanced literature studies and occasional lectures, with recent concentration upon the works of William Faulkner, Henry James, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Honoré de Balzac, and Charles Dickens. Other long-time interests have included the exploration of generative music sourced from database architecture.

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